7 Quick Tips To Create Compelling Landing Pages

Have you ever had a campaign that seems so close to making it but despite your efforts, can’t quite make it over the hurdle of profitability? Your creative CTR is pretty great, so you turn to your landing page and immediately realize that you’re losing 80% of your users the moment they get to your landing page!

You try your best to split test your images and headline but that barely helps. What’s wrong? Perhaps you’re forgetting (or just aren’t aware of) what a great landing page is truly comprised of. In either case, fret no more, and check out these great tips to increase your landing page performance.

1. Know Your Traffic

When you’re thinking of buying traffic, you should do a little research on your traffic source(s) first. A lot of performance marketers will find it sufficient to merely identify which vertical is most prominent or lucrative in a traffic source.

However, in most cases, that is not enough. What you’re truly looking for is traffic that will be receptive to your offer in particular. Facebook and POF make this process a little easier, since you can easily target types of users. But even in those cases, you will want to take the time to understand what makes those users happy and what pains them so that you can write appropriate and effective copy in your landing pages that will coincide with your demographic’s belief system and culture.

Pro Tip:
A few great resources you can use to check not only the volume of traffic a traffic source might receive, but the type of traffic as well are Alexa , Quantcast, and SimilarWeb.

2. Know your Vertical

Once you’ve properly researched your traffic demographic, you’ll need to research your vertical. Whether you’re promoting a gaming install or credit cards, you need to understand the market; including what drives the demand for it and what prevents individuals from partaking in it.

Take dating for example. The typical approach to creating a landing page for a dating campaign is to throw up a creative requesting users to join for the superficial and short term appeals of any dating site–to meet prospective mates. The only problem is that everyone else is doing the same thing. Also, dating is more than finding someone cute, or strong, or rich. It’s about the experiences and the journey of finding that special someone; both through an online service and personal interactions. A campaign and landing page which calls to that will succeed the most.

The only way to tap into what type of experience users are seeking and avoiding then is to either speak to people who date online or read dating site reviews. If you have a particular offer you’re running, you should also check if there are any review threads of their services. Pay attention to what people like and dislike and create a landing page that focuses on the positives and rejects the negatives.

Pro Tip:
For other verticals and products, check out Appstore reviews and Amazon.com. Users tend to express their true feelings about a product they’ve purchased there and will give you perspective on market desires and aversions.

3. Scannable Elements

Once you’ve found the compelling content you’ve compiled after reading user reviews on products or services in your vertical, you’re ready to put it on a landing page. However, if you’re not careful about the placement of your content, it may not get read by your users and your efforts will all be for naught.

It’s important to structure your landing pages in a way that allows the user to quickly scan and comprehend the message of your landing page. That means including a strong headline, subheads, bullet-points, and captions for your images when applicable.

Pro Tip:
People typically read in an “F-Shaped” pattern and from top-left to bottom-right. In addition to heatmaps which track where users click or move their cursor, which can be generated by Crazyegg’s Confetti tools or Lucky Orange, you can structure your landing pages in way that anticipates where users pay attention.

4. Toss Out Irrelevant Copy and Images

After finding out what compels your targeted demo, you need to make sure that your copy isn’t riddled with filler words, irrelevant statements, or confusing images. With a growing trend of an ever-shrinking attention span combined with the fast-paced nature of today’s society, you need to exclude anything that can detract the user from your message.

However, that doesn’t mean that you need to keep things short. It should be noted that in a test between short copy and long copy, long copy tends to get better results and more conversions. What that means is that your content should remain relevant and focus only on getting the user to move on to the next step in your sales funnel.

5. Solve Their Problems First

A great way to structure your relevant content is to first boast your benefits, then your features–never the other way around. People are primarily concerned by whether or not their problems can be solved.

By boasting your benefits first, you’re able to immediately draw in the users’ attention. Following that with a clear and succinct description of how you can help them will then further convince them that what you have to offer is worth their time and money.

Pro Tip:
Find a way to incorporate a sense of urgency after you’ve listed your benefits and features. Sure, you have the answer for what pains them and can provide them with a better life, but you need to make them feel like those benefits could easily slip away if they don’t act immediately.

6. Offer A Specific Solution In Your CTA

After you’ve listed your benefits and features along with a sense of urgency, it’s time to hit them with your CTA (Call To Action). The key to a great call to action is one that provides a specific solution to their problem and tells them exactly how to take advantage of your offer.

This doesn’t mean you can’t have a stand-alone button with one word on it, but it you should have some text directly above that button which tells the user by clicking the following button, they will be able to gain the benefits you just worked so hard to articulate and provide for them.

7. Lead Up to the CTA

Don’t slam them with the CTA, increase your energy as you get closer to asking them to act
People are inherently resistant when they are lead to buy or subscribe to anything. That aspect of performance marketing is something that you must constantly overcome and can be done more easily if you lead up to providing the user an opportunity to act.

This is why landing pages exist in the first place. But sometimes people forget that aspect and think that a landing page alone will bridge the gap between interest and action. You must also gradually increase your benefits and features in your landing pages to energize the user and get them excited. If you ask too soon, you may be doing so without sufficient information or knowledge and turn the user away.

Ultimately, Just Listen

If there’s any one thing any of these rules require, it’s that you need to listen to the desires of the user. Every day, people are on their computers and phones, telling everyone exactly what it is they want. It’s up to you to find those resources and to tap into those desires to create a truly compelling and effective landing page.